Everyone Has a Dark Side
by MajoraGodofChaos
Summary: Sonic's recurring nightmares are getting worse. He's seeing himself commit multiple murders, getting worse and worse. After a talk with Tails, however, he finds out why...
1. Fear of the Dark

_**Everyone Has a Dark Side...**_

Sonic panted as he awoke from the nightmare. It was the same one every time. He's strolling along with Tails, and then out of nowhere he's at some human kid's house, asking him if he wants to "play." Play being used _very _lightly, as there was blood, gore, and... he shuddered. He _hated _the dream. He _knew _he would never do something like that, and yet... it felt _right._ He didn't know why, and it purely _scared _him. He knew it was a primal instinct, that he could do... something to that effect if his life was threatened, but that kid hadn't done anything to him. _Anything. _He was a normal kid (He assumed) with a normal life (He assumed) _**AND HE MURDERED HIM IN COLD BLOOD. **_He had to talk to someone. Soon...

The next morning...

"Tails? Can... Can we talk?" Sonic asked. He hadn't slept after the nightmare. He had had maybe three hours of sleep, but it didn't show. He was used to not sleeping after all the shit Eggman had put him through, but Chaos had to take the cake. Near the end, with Amy and the Egg Carrier and finally the final battle, it was four days before he actually got any sleep. He slept for nearly a week. "Sonic? Sonic? SONIC!" "Huh?"

"Sonic, you wanted to talk." Tails replied. Shit. He realized he had been lost in thought. It happened often when he was very tired. He had rambled for _hours_ while on the Chaos epis- _**"**__**SONIC!**__**"**_ Damn, he did it again. He better start talking before... He shook his head to clear it. "Yeah."

"What about? You haven't been getting a lot of sleep, have you?"

"Hah. Talk about an understatement."

"I'm sensing that it's a little more than you just not sleeping well..."

"What clued you in?"

"The fact that I practically can see you thinking. I was thinking I smelled smoke, anyway."

"You can take that retort and shove it up your-"

"You're having nightmares."

"How did you-"

"You get more distant and kind of bitchy."

"_Tails!"_

"What? You say sh-stuff like that all the time."

_"You are ten years old._ When you're my age you can talk like that."

"Fine."

"Now yes, I've been having a very disturbing, recurring nightmare."

"About..."

"..."

"Sonic..."

"I..."

"Sonic, Tell me."

"I... I can't."

"Sonic..." Tails reiterated, getting more forceful.

"No, never. I don't want to talk about it."

"Sonic, _fucking tell me._" Sonic looked at Tails, purely shocked. Even though he occasionally swore when working, a rare "damn" was the worst he ever let slip. Sonic took a deep breath, and replied:

"I've been having a very bad nightmare, where I... It happens like this, every time. I send a disc with a hacked game to a kid. That game is very unnerving. And then, when I... Kill you, and Knuckles, and, oddly, Eggman, I kill the kid... so, so, horribly... gory... bloody..." He trailed off.

"Oh, my god... Oh. My. God..." Tails was speechless. "I... Can see why you didn't want to talk..."

"Why do you think I'm having these dreams?"

"Could it be residual energy from Dark Gaia?"

"No... That was _years _ago."

"Two."

"Years. That's plural."

_"SONIC."_

"I'm a smart ass. Deal with it."

"Well... Shadow's more accustomed to this... err.. _subject._ Black Arms and all that."

"No, I don't want anyone else to know this."

"I understand."

"I'm gonna try to get some sleep. Can I crash here?"

"Yeah, sure. My room's trashed, but do you _really _care?"

"Ha! Have you seen _my _house?"

"True."

"Sleep tight."

"Heh. I hope."

(Later...)

Sonic was standing in a pure void. Nothing but black in all directions. He took a few steps. They echoed. "Hello? Anyone?" Hello... hello... hello... The echo was very unnerving. Then... "Heheheheheheheheheheheh..."

"Who's there?" Sonic looked around frantically.

"Have you run your fingers down the wall..."

"What? Who is that?"

"Have you felt your neck skin crawl?" It did, just then.

"What the _**fuck**_?"

"You feel a little anxious... _**when it's dark... Mwhahahahahaha!"**_

__"Who the hell are you?!"

_**"Fear of the dark... Fear of the dark..."**_

"_**SHOW YOURSELF, YOU COWARD!"**_

_**"There is a phobia... that someone's always there... HAHAHAHAHAAAA!"**_

__"I swear-"

"Oh, shut up. I'm just having a little _fun."_

"Wait, that voice."

"Don't you want to _play?"_

"I think our definitions of "play" differ greatly."

"You're no fun."

"Show yourself."

"Turn around."

Sonic obliged. As he turned around, and saw _it. It_ looked almost exactly like him. Except _it _had no eyes. _It_ just had red dots where the eyes were supposed to be. It also looked like _it_ had blood running from the eyes.

"You... You're that thing!"

"You... You're right! Ahahahahahaaaa!" _It _laughed maniacally.

"What the hell are you?"

"I guess you can call me... _Exe_."

"Ecksey? What kind of name is that?"

"No, dumbshit, _Exe. _E-x-e."

"Still not a great name."

"Oh, blow it out your-"

"What are you doing here? What am _I_ doing here?"

"We're in your subconscious."

"Why are you here?"

"I'm _part _of you. Don't you _get_ that? I'm as much a part of you as your arm, or your leg. We're _inseparable_. I'm that little voice in the back of your head that tells you to drive a spike through Eggman's head. I'm that voice that says to destroy the world, not to save it. I was there when you felt discouraged about Chaos and wanted to quit. I was the one that said to let the ARK crash. I told you to let Metal win, and to give up against the Black Arms. I said to let Solaris succeed."

"Solaris? Who is-"

"I said to give up against Dark Gaia, to give up against Eggman, I am _**the dark.**_ I am the void, the black, _**the nothing. **_I am not anything, yet I am not _nothing._ I am your primal instincts, you primal fear, I am you before you were you. Well, I'd tell you more, but you're waking up soon. Goodbye."

Sonic jerked awake, and knew he'd never sleep again.


	2. A Little Piece of Heaven

_First, Thank you to all who reviewed. Now. Let me set something straight. This idea started as a creepypasta, but I changed my mind. Sonic was originally going to snap while talking to Tails, and, thinking he WAS the original , go on a murderous rampage. That's why it seems to be leading up to a creepypasta. I should have rewritten it, yes, but I was lazy. Why'd I change it? I hated it. I didn't want to write Sonic as the villain. I then came up with the Idea of Exe being the manifestations of Sonic's primal instincts. In case I didn't display it with his purely contradictory dialogue, Exe's a little unhinged. Just a bit. Now, sit back and enjoy the next part of Everyone has a Dark Side._

_**A Little Piece of Heaven, A Little Taste of Hell**_

Sonic paced back and forth, waiting for the secretary to call him into Shadow's office. Ever sonce he had taken the job at G.U.N, Shadow had been almost impossible to get ahold of, but according to him, taking over for General Towers and Commander of G.U.N. had its benefeits... Mostly, the _very _large paycheck.

"Mister Sonic? Commander Shadow will see you now." The secretary said. Sonic thanked her, and went through the double doors to Shadow's meeting room, and continued through to the office. It was spacious, and sparsely decorated.

"Sonic? To what do I owe this pleasure?" Shadow said, feigning boredom, but truly enjoying the company.

"You really should decorate this. Get some pictures, a few statues..." He commented.

"If I did, they'd be all over my ass." Shadow replied. Sonic nodded, but knew that he could paint the walls with magma and they wouldn't say a damn thing. "Now, the true reason you're visiting? Not that I don't enjoy it, mind you, but I'm kind of jammed today."

"What do you know about primal beings that haunt dreams?" Sonic said, figuring telling the truth would make this go faster. Then, he noticed.

Shadow looked _scared. _He had a full-on deer-in-the-headlights expression.

"Mary?" He said, pushing the button for the intercom. "Cancel everything else I have today."

"But sir-"

"I don't give a shit if the damn president is coming, _cancel it._ Somthing's come up."

"Yes, should I tell people that come looking, sir?"

"That I'm out inspecting a Chaos Emerald sighting and won't be back until tomorrow."

"Of course, sir."

"Thank you." He shut the intercom off.

"Shadow, I have the Emeralds."

"I know that. No one else does, though."

"Ah. Gotcha. Now, why are we canceling all your appointments?"

"Well. Let me put it this way: this... your dream eater... He's not the first of his kind."

_**"What?!"**_

__"Not exactly."

"And I'm just finding out about this now because..."

"Tails told me not to bother you."

"Tails... wha..." Sonic was shocked. His little brother hadn't told him about dreams like this?

"The Tails Doll, however, is in G.U.N. possession, specifically in the vaults under Wesopolis."

Doll.. Maybe it was different. "Tails Doll?" Sonic asked.

"Evil little possessed doll. Why? Is there a Sonic Doll now?"

"I wish there was..."

"So... it's different..."

"Yeah." Sonic told him the story of the dream, and the exchange last night.

"... Oh..."

"Yep."

"I... I don't know what to say."

"Say you have some kind of Chaos power that can fix this."

"Well, there's some ancient texts that deal with the subconcious mind..."

"And?"

"They're written in a dead language."

"Can you translate?"

"A bit..."

"Try."

Shadow thought for a moment, then slowly replied: "If it was anyone but you, Sonic..." Then got up and left the room. Sonic didn't need to hear the rest.

Abandoned section of the Westopolis G.U.N. "Catacombs"

4 hours later.

"Got it?" Sonic asked anxiously. He felt a nagging in the back of his head, like they shouldn't do this. He briefly wondered if it was Exe trying to save his own sorry ass.

"As sure as I was about the Black Arms."

"But you weren't su-"

"Here we go! This is it!" Sonic still felt very unsafe.

"You sure he can't get out?"

"Yeah, see this passage here?" Shadow replied, pointing to a part of the book. Sonic assumed it was the desription of the spell, _breuddwydiwr anhrefn, _translated roughly as "Chaos Dreamer."

"Yeah... you sure it won't put me to sleep? I mean, _dreamer? Really?" _

"It's a rough translation, Sonic, nothing is perfect."

"Fine. Now what about the passage?"

"It says, _Bydd y breuddwydiwr agor porth, a bydd yn caniatáu i'r un allanfa yn driw i'r gwir meddwl."_

"Would it kill you to speak english?"

"Roughly, The dreamer shall open a portal, and it shall allow the one true entrance to the true mind."

"Lot of trues." Sonic remarked sarcastically.

"Shut up. You're lucky I can translate the damn thing."

"Yes. Let's try this."

Sonic stepped in to the circle of the Chaos Emeralds, and took a deep breath. Shadow stood up and took the fake Emerald that he would use to initiate the process. The book said that the one in the circle activated the ritual, but since Shadow had more energy in reserve, was more talented with Chaos energy, and Sonic needed all his strength, he would use the fake to charge the real emeralds. "You sure this will work, Shadow?"

"What can go wrong? The spell will fail and we're back at square one?"

"I hope to god not."

Shadow began focusing his energy on the fake emerald, pouring all his concentration into it. Sonic braced himself, preparing to be blown into the wall in a massive explosion.

"CHAOS..." Sonic tensed. "DREAMER!"

Suddenly, the emeralds all lit up, white lights shooting from them and up Sonic's body, stopping at his head. He felt a jolt of joy, like Exe was excited. The light shot through him, and opened a portal in front of him. The emeralds dropped to the ground, and behind him he heard Shadow's fake emerald crumble and fall to dust.

"Wish me luck..." He said as he stepped forward.

"Well, that was exhilarating. Fun, even. Yet, you have no _idea_ how hard it was to keep your _actual_ subconcious from telling you this was a bad idea." Exe said triumphantly.

"What? How?" Sonic rushed to the portal and tried to get through, but it repelled him, while he saw Exe strolling up to it, and almost... _caressing_ it.

"Been so long since I saw this portal. I think your father was an itch in his father's father's father's father's father's... It's been a while, long story short."

"But... you... What are you?!"

"Ah, I guess I owe you you an explanation. While I _am _a manifestation of _someone's _primal instincts, they're long removed from you. I think... Your Great... to the one-hundred and thirty-fifth grandfather... Something like that... Anyway, his brother went batshit insane, and gave birth to me in his mind. When he died, I escaped, but your ancestral grandfather, fucker that he was, imprisoned me in the back of his mind. I've been passed down, father to son, for years, but _you. You _were special. You suffered so much in your early years, you weakened the bonds. I should really thank Eggman, but that's for a different time. Recently, the bonds became so weak, I could sort of astral-project. That's where your nightmares came from. that last one... heheheheh... I must have stabbed him _fifty __**fucking **__**TIMES**__**! Hahahahahaaaa! AND NOW I'M FREE! ALL BECAUSE OF YOU! Ya fucked up, Sonic!"**_ Exe continued laughing like a madman, while Shadow motioned for Sonic to duck. Sonic obliged, and Shadow jumped towards Exe.

"Chaos... SPEAR!" Shadow Yelled, an arrow of pure energy flying towards Exe. Exe, however, dodged the spear, grabbed Shadow's fist, twisted it, and pushed him back. All the while laughing.

"I've got one, too! Chaos... Punch to the face!" He did just that, sending Shadow flying across the room, making a large dent in the wall. He didn't get up. "I realize now I didn't really need the 'Chaos' on that now..."

Sonic was half conscious, the slipstream from Shadow had knocked him into the table with the book and other components.

Exe picked up three of the Emeralds, holding each one for a moment before tossing it in the air and catching it with the other hand.

"Ah, look at these! This one's red, like your blood will be! And this one's green, like your eyes that I'm gonna claw out mercilessly! And this one's blue, like the sky! Well, before I'm done with it, anyway. See you later!"

"Wait... "was all that Sonic could muster.

"Chaos Control!" Exe was gone.

The world was _**fucked.**_


	3. Skin O' My Teeth

_**I'm Hanging On By the Skin O' My Teeth**_

Sonic awoke a few minutes later, wondering why every part of his body felt like it had been put into a washer on 'high.' Then, the last five waking minutes came back to him. He looked over, and saw Shadow was conscious, but not moving.

"Sh-Shadow?" He managed, coming out like more of a hint-type grunt than an actual sentence.

"Oh. You're awake." He was definitely in pain, there was no doubt. "Since I know you're wondering, we've only been out about fifteen minutes. And also, I haven't moved because I have severe whiplash from his punch-to-the-face technique."

"How-"

"It's a very long, boring, story of experiments going wrong, one going right, essentially making me immortal, and giving me full knowledge of every body function at any time."

"Huh. So, what do you think he's gonna do next?" He asked, picking up the four remaining emeralds.

"Well, in order to keep him a secret, at least until the time was right, I'd say he'd get rid of everyone who knew about him... So why didn't he finish us off? You, I get, because he wants to mess with you some more, but me? I'm the only possible threat. Right? Sonic?" Sonic couldn't move. He stood woth a horrified expression on his face, realizing what Shadow said was true. Exe probably thought he had killed Shadow, but there was one other that knew about him.

Tails.

"Shit. Shadow, get everone here, _warn them._" Sonic said, helping Shadow up. Shadow had taken one of the emeralds and healed himself to the point that he could walk.

"And where exactly are you going?"

"I have to get to Tails. I talked to him first."

"Well... Shit."

"Chaos... Control!" With that, Sonic disappeared.

Tails's House and Workshop, Mystic Ruins, Approximately Ten minutes earlier

Exe walked up to his 'little brother's' house, using the emeralds to make his eyes appear to be Sonic's... Well, if they weren't so transparently _not. _It was fine, he only needed to lull Tails into a false sense of security so he'd deactivate the security system. He never thought probing Sonic's memories would be useful, but he'd been wrong before. Surely, Tails wouldn't think that his brother had been possessed by a psychotic demon bent on total devastation of the world. He knocked on the door. He heard a muffled "Who is it?" from the inside.

"It's me, Tails, Shadow was a bust, nothing happened."

"Oh, ok, give me a second." Exe turned his head to the ground and dropped the disguise. He wanted a scream.

"So what are you gonna d- _**AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" **_

Oh, this would be _fun._ He grabbed Tails by the tuft of hair on his chest and threw him across the room, cracking the wall and making a large _crunch_ as Tails's bones broke. Exe didn't know which ones, he _damn _sure didn't care, as long as it hurt. He walked over and picked him up, this time by the neck, and tossed him _through _the wall, into the kitchen, breaking one of the cabinets and sending dishes tumbling onto him. Tails tried to get up and run down the stairs to his workshop. Exe decided to give him a push. Tails grunted in pain as he tumbled down the stairs and hit the floor with a satisfying- or sickening, depending on the listener- _thud._ Tails tired to get up, but Exe was blessed with his non-psychotic counterpart's speed, and grabbed him by the neck again. He held Tails up to his face, slowly crushing the life out of him, while Tails mustered all his strength and kicked Exe squarely between the legs. Exe grunted in pain and threw the fox across the room, landing in one of his many planes.

"God, I don't have anything down there, but that still hurt, damnit!"

"Wh-why don't you?" Tails mustered, trying to crawl over the plane.

"Oh, _come on._ I thought you were supposed to be smart! You _really_ think that a physical manifestation of evil would have a dick?"

"No." Tails replied simply, "I just wanted to keep you in one place long enough for the targeting computer to lock onto you." He finished as he pulled the trigger on the plane's control yoke, firing three missiles at the demon. He was unable to dodge, and the first one hit him square in the face, the other two hitting the wall behind him and blowing a hole in it, sending him through. The green Chaos Emerald he had been holding lay on the floor. Tails tumbled out of the plane and started crawling towards it, its healing powers the only thing that could save him at this point. He heard footsteps upstairs, and crawled faster, thinking Exe had come back to finish him. He reached the emerald as he saw red and white shoes and blue legs round the corner. He grabbed it and held it up, desperately thinking for a Chaos attack, but none would come to him.

"Oh, my god, Tails, are you okay?" It was Sonic. Silently thanking every deity that he could think of at the moment, he looked up. Into red pupils. Exe smiled back, his fangs showing prominently as he put the heel of his foot onto Tails's neck and pushed down. "Thought you had me, didn't you?"

_**"Get off of my fucking brother!"**_ Suddenly, Exe wasn't on his throat anymore, he could breathe, and there was a massive crash behind him. He looked, he was very confused.

He couldn't tell which one was which.

Sonic and Exe were exchainging blows so fast they looked like mirror images of each other. It didn't help that Tails could only tell them apart by their eyes. He decided to take a chance. If he screwed up, they were fucked.

"Sonic, catch!"

Prdictably, they both looked at him, but at least he knew which was which now. he tossed the emerald to Sonic, who barely caught it before Exe got it. Sonic retaliated by grabbing Tails and shouting "Chaos Control!" Leaving Exe behind.

Somewhere on Planet Mobius

Sonic and Tails tumbled onto the soft ground of the forest, each groaning in pain. Sonic stuggled to his feet and looked aroud, trying to recognize a landmark. Unfortunately, he couldn't.

"Sonic... Th-thank you..." Tails said

"No problem, little buddy." Sonic replied with a sigh. "I'm sorry. It's my fault. I shouldn't have told you."

"No, he'd have come after me anyway. He's going to go after the ones closest to you."

"..."

"Sonic?"

"You're... You're right... _**fuck.**_"

"Do you have any idea where we are?"

"No clue, I wasn't thinking about anyplace other than 'away from here' when I Chaos Controlled."

"I can understand. Sonic, something else."

"Huh?"

"He can imitate you."

"How?"

"The emerald I-"

"No, I mean imitate me how?"

"He can copy your eyes and your voice."

"But his normal voice-"

"Is like yours, yeah, but it's like it's being fed through a voice box."

"I don't understand."

"Let me put it to you this way: remember that time I showed you my World of Warcraft account?"

"Sort of... I mainly remember the.. err... dark knight was it?"

"_Death _knight. And that's what I wanted to bring up. Remember how his voice had that voice box effect to it?"

"Actually, yes."

"Like that. It's the same voice, but kind of distorted."

"Hmm..."

"What?"

"Nothing, just thinking."

"So, can we get back?"

"Yeah, let me get the emerald." Sonic walked over to where the green emerald lay, picking it up and focusing his power.

"Sonic?"

"Huh?"

"Do you... Do you think we can beat him?"

"Why couldn't we? He's nothing we haven't faced before."

"We've never faced pure evil!"

"Ok, three things. First, What do you think Dark Gaia was if not evil? Second, He's limited by my form. If he could take his true form, he'd be unstoppable. Third, the Emeralds have taken down enraged gods, failed experiments, power-crazed robots, and alien abominations! What makes you think Exe's gonna be different?"

"We only have five emeralds."

"Well..." Sonic couldn't argue with his logic. "We'll get the other two. We always do. Now, we need to get to G.U.N."

"Shadow?"

"And the rest of our friends. I just hope he could get them all." With that, they teleported to a much more precise location this time: The G.U.N. Armory in Station Square.

G.U.N. Armory, Station Square, One hour later

Sonic sighed in relief as Knuckles walked through the door into the meeting room. He was the last of their tight-knit group to arrive. the only ones that Shadow hadn't been able to get a hold of were Vector and Charmy, mainly because they worked at the G.U.N. Main headquarters in Westopolis, but Espio had escorted Shadow to Station Square while he was working on a project here. Sonic looked over the room, double checking to see if they had missed anybody. He noted Tails, Knuckles, and Amy in the corner, discussing what had happened. Rouge, Omega, and Espio were talking to Shadow in the front of the room. Mentally going over who _wasn't _ here, he checked off the ones that were, for the moment at least, safe.

Cream and Vanilla were on South Island, vacationing in the Green Hills.

Blaze was on West Side Island, taking part in the "Oil Ocean Relief Effort," a team trying to clean up the waste from Eggman's Metropolis and Cyber City "Zones," for lack of a better term.

Silver had taken a guard job on Prison Island, mainly to keep Eggman in check.

The Babylon Rogues were god-knows-where, doing god-knows-what, and simply finding them would be a herculean effort in itself.

Sonic couldn't think of any others, at least ones that Exe would go after. He looked around again. Shadow looked ready to say something, so Sonic got up and walked over to him.

"You sure we should tell them, Sonic?"

"Tails pretty much summed up what Exe's doing."

"Yeah..."

"Hey, guys? I'm sure you're wondering why we got you all here today."

"Oh oh oh! Let me guess! You want to sell them Girl Scout cookies! No, wait... Too simple... wait, I got it! You want to tell them about the coolest, sexiest evil being ever, don't you! Ha! I knew it!"

"Exe! Show yourself!" Sonic said, looking around the room frantically.

"If you say so." Exe replied, and materialized in a cloud of black smoke, across the room from Sonic. Several of the group freaked out. Amy purely screamed.

'Well, aren't you just _full_ of fucking surprises.' Sonic thought.

"What's the matter, Sonic? Aren't you happy to see me?" Exe said with a dark chuckle.

"**Targeting unknown being... Fire!**" Sonic heard from behind him, and dove out of the way just in time for a barrage of bullets to plow into Exe. Exe fell backwards, most likey just shocked.

"**Target exterminated.**"

"God. You people just think that I'm one of you, don't you? That I'll go down like you?"

"**Does not compute. Target should reasonably be destroyed. Adjusting parameters. Critical values updated. Changing Ammunition. Targe-**" Omega was no longer in the room. In fact, Sonic wasn't even sure he was still in the _building,_ with the way he went flying. Exe was definitely strong, there was no doubt about that. Shadow attempted to punch Exe, but he was sent through the ceiling. Espio was heading downward seconds later. Rouge made a sizable bat-shaped dent in the wall. Knuckles got a punch in, but was quickly given the same fate as Shadow.

"You should really know, this time I'm not fucking around." Exe said, turning to Amy. "Why, hello. Now I'm wondering how I missed you when I came in." He walked towards her, and she shrunk against the wall. "Now, now, don't be afraid. I'm not going to hurt you... yet. In fact, you could even be my queen." He reached out to stroke her face.

_"Get the fuck away from her."_

"Wow, Sonic! You actually managed to sound threatening there! Now tell me. _Just what are you gonna do about it?"_ Exe reached out to her again, but suddenly he was on the floor, with a massive pain in his side.

"You should really know... This time, _I'm not fucking around, either."_ He immediately launched into another barrage, using his speed to beat Exe senseless. Exe grabbed Sonic by the neck, picked him up, and threw him across the room. Exe didn't see what happened, but he heard the table in the middle of the room break, and Sonic cried out in pain. When Exe _did_ look, he saw that a lone leg of the table had splintered and impaled Sonic. Sonic was lying, looking at the bloody spike protruding from his body, gasping for breath. Exe walked over and grabbed the table leg, forcefully pulling it out, causing Sonic to cry out again.

"Wh-wh-why didn't you just l-let me bleed out?" Sonic asked as best he could.

"A lot of reasons. For one, it'd take too long. But I really just want to torture you some more." Sonic looked over at Amy, who was crying in the corner. Tails was nowhere to be seen. At least he made it out. Sonic didn't blame him.

"Now, what's the most important part of your body to you? Your arms? Legs? I really don't care, I'm just wondering."

"Go to hell."

"I've aready been, they kicked me out. Save me a seat for when I get back, though." He walked around Sonic, as if examining each part of his body. Exe stopped at his legs. He jumped into the air and came down _hard_ on Sonic's left leg, a spine-chilling _**crunch**_filling the air. Sonic screamed. "Oh, _wow_ that was fun! Wanna do it again?" He jumped again, but this time he was blasted out of the air by an explosion.

"Get off of my fucking brother."

Tails stood there, a still-smoking rocket laucher in hand. He ran over to where Sonic was, to help him up, but Exe knocked him out of the way.

"Not so fast, fox-boy!" Tails brought the RPG up again and fired, but Exe pulled out his two remaining emeralds and put up a shield. "Didn't see that one coming, did you?" Sonic seized the opportunity and used his remaining leg to kick Exe as hard as he could, forcing him to drop the emeralds. As soon as Exe and the emeralds hit the floor, Sonic jumped up as best he could, and dived for them. He got them before Exe could recover, and began to draw out their power. They began to circle him, glowing their respective colors before becoming a blur of white light. He shrunk up, drawing their power into him, before exploding in a brilliant golden light. He floated down to the floor, trying to readjust to the immense power of Super Sonic, before opening his now-red eyes. Exe looked incredulous.

"NO! NO!_** NO NO NO NO NO NOOO! IT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN LIKE THIS! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO DIE! WHY AREN'T YOU DEAD YET?!"**_

__"Well, Exe, what can I say? I tend to hold on by the skin of my teeth most times." Sonic replied with a smirk. With the familiar power of the emeralds coursing through him, he felt much more confident. Exe growled and lunged toward Sonic, and grabbed him by the neck. Sonic simply stood there, doing nothing.

"Uuuhh... Exe? I thought you were supposed to know my entire history. Shouldn't you know I don't have to breathe in this form?" He blasted Exe with some residual energy. The emeralds were slightly overcharged from not having been used in so long, so he was much more powerful than usual. The blast sent Exe at least two rooms over, but when he reemerged, Sonic nearly fainted. Instead of the normal blue, Exe's body was a shadowy greyish-black. His eyes were reversed, as well, being mostly blood-red, with small black pupils. Exe had been able to absorb the Chaos energy.

Exe had gone Super.

"Well, I can see why you love this form so much now! The power is so _immense._ It's seriously very nearly making me drunk. I _love _it."

"Fuck." Sonic said simply, before tackling Exe full-on, flying into him. Exe went flying, and Sonic went flying after him. Exe stopped in midair long enough for Sonic to deliver another earth-shattering punch, sending Exe towards the ground. When he didn't try to right himself, Sonic realized something: Even though Exe was just as powerful as him in this form, Sonic had _much_ more experience with being Super. He knew that the only way he was going to win was to exploit every weakness Exe had, so he flew down after him. He picked Exe up and tossed him, Exe crashing through three buildings before righting himself, with Sonic close behind. Sonic tried to punch him again, but Exe was quicker this time, flying out of the way, and delivering a powerful elbow-smash to Sonic's back. Sonic hit the ground, making a massive crater appear. He heard a few people scream, and he most likely barely missed them. He rocketed back up towards Exe, and shot off a small barrage of Chaos Spears. Exe deftly dodged each one, but left himself wide open to a spindash, hitting him directly. Exe was sent through yet _another_ building, leaving Sonic to briefly wonder how many people he had killed by fighting Exe. He didn't get to think long, however, as Exe flew towards him and knocked him back, Sonic just barely righting himself before he hit the ground. Exe was right behind him, though, and grabbed Sonic, flying upwards while dragging him. Sonic fought against his grip, but what Exe lacked in skill, he made up for in pure strength. Sonic began focusing his power again, this time calling on more destructive powers. He didn't dare use this skill in the city, it was far too destructive, but at nearly 20,000 feet, there wasn't much he could hurt. He felt the energy reach its peak, almost to a breaking point.

"Chaos... BLAST!" He cried, and a massive explosion engulfed both hedgehogs, forcing Exe to let go of him, and causing them both to plummet towards the ground. Sonic looked at his body, and noticed that he was flashing blue and yellow. He and Shadow called it "flickering," and it meant that your power was almost depleted, you were about to return to normal. Sonic looked up, and saw the ground coming up fast. He used the last bit of his power to slow down as much as he could, but he still hit pretty hard. When he finally was able to look, he noticed he still had a bit of power left... Maybe he could use Chaos Regeneration? It wouldn't be much, but he could heal the damge from the fall. He could hardly move. Before he could use it, however, Exe stumbled over to him, his power completely gone.

"Well... Look how the mighty have fallen. You put up a great fight, Sonic. You really did. You know, I could use a guy like you... To keep my subjects in line. What do you say, huh?"

"Fuck you."

"Well, since I'm about to kill you anyway-" He put his foot on Sonic's chest "-I could tell you exactly _how _I'm going to destroy and take over the world."

"Ponies and friendship?"

"Oh, Sonic. Snarky to the end, huh? But no, no ponies will be involved. I'm going to-GAAAH!"

Sonic grabbed his leg with both hands, pulling on it, and finally breaking and making a very satisfying _crack_. He then threw Exe off of him, before his Super form finally gave out. Exe jumped up, and lunged toward him, grabbing him by the throat once more.

"You know, Sonic," he growled out, "when I kill Amy? I'll make sure I'm using _you_ as a disguise. I'll cut her open, I'll make her bleed. And the worst part? _**She'll think it's you. AHAHAHAAAA!" **_

That did it.

Seizing a nearby piece of glass, he flipped it around to get a better grip on it, and tried to move his arm into position.

"Hey, Exe." He choked out.

"Yes, my dear copy? What are your last words?"

Sonic was barely holding on at this point, but managed to choke out one last line:

"I don''t need you anymore." With that, he swung his arm up, plunging the piece of glass into Exe's head like a knife. Exe had a dumbfounded look on his face for a split second, before falling over, limp. Sonic sat up and rubbed his neck, looking at the demon for a moment before passing out.

G.U.N. Armory Rooftop, Station Square, four hours later

"Sonic? You okay?" Shadow asked.

"Hm? Yeah, I'm fine."

"Hey, here's that drink you wanted."

"Thanks." He took a sip, but it was hard to swallow. Exe had severely bruised his neck. Among other things, of course. "How are the others?"

"Tails is fine, orther than the beating he recieved before you got here, Knuckles is still unconscious, Rouge and Espio are consicous, but very hurt, and Omega is being repaired."

"Amy?"

"She's fine, just really shaken up. I think you should go talk to her."

"I think I will."

"Oh, Sonic?"

"Hm?"

"I.. um... Retranslated the book."

"And?"

"It's not the entrance to the mind... It's the _exit_."

"That explains a lot."

"I'm sorry... This is kind of my fault..."

"It's fine. It would have happened sooner or later. The only difference would have been whether I was fighting him on the inside or outside."

"Yeah... you should go."

"See ya later."

G.U.N. Armory Infirmary

When Sonic got to the infirmary, he saw Amy sitting in a chair, looking blankly out the window. He walked up to her.

"Ames? You... You okay?"

Amy didn't respond. She just kept looking out the window.

"Amy, about that stuff with Exe... I'm sorry." He sat down next to her. "Amy?"

"... You... protected me..."

"Of course I did! I wouldn't be much of a hero if I just stood by and let stuff happen!"

"You reacted different with me... Like..."

"Like what?"

"Like I was special..."

"Well..."

"Well what?" She asked, turning towards him. He responded by kissing her. As he pulled away, she remained there, looking like she was in a dream.

"Does that answer your question?" He asked, chuckling.

"A little." she replied, smiling.

"So... Yeah..."

"Can I stay with you for a while?"

"Huh? Why?"

"Because I can see... or used to could see my apartment building from here."

Sonic looked out the window. "Oh. I don't see why you can't stay with me for a while. I kinda owe you..."

"Good."

"So, you wanna go ahead and get going? I'm kinda tired."

"Sure." She got up from the chair, and he followed her, stopping for a minute to look out the window again at the sunset.

He had a feeling he'd sleep good tonight.


End file.
